Moderators: carlson1, Keith B, Charles L. Cotton
Hopefully one of our current/ past LEOs will pipe up, I believe that you cannot be charged with reckless driving in Texas unless a police officer witness said crime.dlh wrote:The detective looking into it should bust the driver of that vehicle for reckless driving. Glad you were not hurt.
ELB wrote:Wow. Have you been able to calm down yet?
+1 on gathering all the evidence you might ever need ASAP, even if you don't currently plan to do anything. Also, me, I would call a lawyer and get a quick consult on this. This could go several directions, several of them bad. Aside from the civil and criminal implications, what if you are now on this clown's poo-list and he decides to stalk or otherwise harass you.
Now, in the calm reflection of my office,it appears that putting your body between your family and the car is noble, but it would not have stopped the car. Even shooting the driver is not necessarily helpful if he's already pointed the car at you. Getting your family and yourself out of the way is the only real option. I would hope while you were doing your thing that your wife was getting the kids out of the way. You two might want to discuss how to handle any future crises.
That makes total sense, My thought at the time was that technically they were safe on the curb, but after seeing him jump a curb there didn't seem to be another option. Also, this whole ordeal may have lasted 30 seconds at the longest. I agree though a plan would've been nice. My wife said "when I saw you running, I knew it was serious" haha. Not sure how I should take that.
Good luck!
Intentionally striking someone with a motor vehicle would seem to be MINIMUM aggravated assault and possibly up to attempted murder. With six adult witnesses, it would seem the detective could make a decent felony assault case...steveincowtown wrote:Hopefully one of our current/ past LEOs will pipe up, I believe that you cannot be charged with reckless driving in Texas unless a police officer witness said crime.dlh wrote:The detective looking into it should bust the driver of that vehicle for reckless driving. Glad you were not hurt.
To the OP. As other have said, always call first. In fact, I would have called at the first sign of trouble.
ScottDLS wrote:Intentionally striking someone with a motor vehicle would seem to be MINIMUM aggravated assault and possibly up to attempted murder. With six adult witnesses, it would seem the detective could make a decent felony assault case...steveincowtown wrote:Hopefully one of our current/ past LEOs will pipe up, I believe that you cannot be charged with reckless driving in Texas unless a police officer witness said crime.dlh wrote:The detective looking into it should bust the driver of that vehicle for reckless driving. Glad you were not hurt.
To the OP. As other have said, always call first. In fact, I would have called at the first sign of trouble.
I might have been tempted to respond with 15 shots through the back windshield after being hit, but OP clearly demonstrated restraint. Trying to run you over is definitely a use of deadly force, and once struck, who's to know if they wouldn't go on and hit others... I might consider carrying a long gun more often if this happened to me...
That's when the good old AR pistol in the tennis racquet case comes in handy. We have two tennis courts on opposite ends of our development. Easy to say, I'm just walking to/from the tennis courts. Using a 2 point (I get better stability out of the 2 point with a pistol) or 1 point sling as a "carry" shoulder strap, the case can just fall away for easy deployment.G23WAX wrote:ScottDLS wrote:Intentionally striking someone with a motor vehicle would seem to be MINIMUM aggravated assault and possibly up to attempted murder. With six adult witnesses, it would seem the detective could make a decent felony assault case...steveincowtown wrote:Hopefully one of our current/ past LEOs will pipe up, I believe that you cannot be charged with reckless driving in Texas unless a police officer witness said crime.dlh wrote:The detective looking into it should bust the driver of that vehicle for reckless driving. Glad you were not hurt.
To the OP. As other have said, always call first. In fact, I would have called at the first sign of trouble.
I might have been tempted to respond with 15 shots through the back windshield after being hit, but OP clearly demonstrated restraint. Trying to run you over is definitely a use of deadly force, and once struck, who's to know if they wouldn't go on and hit others... I might consider carrying a long gun more often if this happened to me...
Ha, I told my neighbor maybe we should carry our ARs when we walk from now on. I somehow think that would be counter productive haha
That would've been a better idea than punching the vehicle. I agree.lildave40 wrote:So is there no sidewalks? imo I would have taken the plate number and called the police as they hit you with there mirror. Also if they live near you I would keep my guard up.
Talk to a plaintiffs' lawyer. It's at least possible that you have a civil cause of action for assault or even battery. Hope that the prospective defendant has money to make a suit worth while.G23WAX wrote:They squeeled around the corner again taking a right heading back towards the kids and towards my family who was with me on the curb. Seeing they had no respect for lanes, angry dads, or curbs I ran towards them in the street with my hands up yelling stop. I was attempting to put myself between my family and them. They sped up when they saw me and slammed on the brakes as they got to me. They then swerved around and made contact with me with their mirror. In a last ditch effort to get them to stop I left a large dent in the 1/4 panel with my fist. They then ran the stop sign again next to my family on the corner and squeeled away.
I would assume it never makes it that far but you never know. We were told it was a rental car as well. However the exhaust was really loud, not flowmaster loud, missing muffler loud. And it was a new ford escape. so either they were lying that it was a rental or they had already thrashed it so hard the muffler had ripped off. New ford escapes aren't really cars you put exhaust on.KLB wrote:Talk to a plaintiffs' lawyer. It's at least possible that you have a civil cause of action for assault or even battery. Hope that the prospective defendant has money to make a suit worth while.G23WAX wrote:They squeeled around the corner again taking a right heading back towards the kids and towards my family who was with me on the curb. Seeing they had no respect for lanes, angry dads, or curbs I ran towards them in the street with my hands up yelling stop. I was attempting to put myself between my family and them. They sped up when they saw me and slammed on the brakes as they got to me. They then swerved around and made contact with me with their mirror. In a last ditch effort to get them to stop I left a large dent in the 1/4 panel with my fist. They then ran the stop sign again next to my family on the corner and squeeled away.
